Without going into a long story here, suffice it to say that cancer has forced me to take a long and hard look at a lot of what I’ve done in the past, and institute many changes in my approach to nutrition and sport supplementation.
In a nutshell, most important amongst these are the dietry exclusion of all processed and added sugars (sucrose, dextrose, fructose, glucose etc), dairy and processed foods (everything in a packet, bottle, box, tablet, capsule or powder), and the almost exclusive inclusion of fresh raw fruit and vegetables, and only cooking fish, meat (no beef unless grass fed, and pork), poultry and eggs – all organic, free range and grass fed!
Back to nature!
This has posed some special sport challenges with regard to event nutrition, and my current solution is to ditch all the energy drinks, bars and gels, and replace them with Liquifruit (It is pure fruit juice with no sugar, preservatives, flavourants or colourants) diluted 1 to 2 with rainwater or Tsitsikama Crystal bottled water, and organic dates from Woolworths for longer rides.
What remains is to ensure sufficient electrolytes replacement. I am not happy with the commercially available products, as they all contain processed dextrose, and most have flavourants, colourants or preservatives added. Plus they cost a pretty penny!
So here is the solution:-
The following powders can be bought from Natures Own Pharmacy in PE, or ask your local pharmacist/ health shop.
400g Sodium Chloride – Himalayan Salt (best) comes in 1kgs (R45.00)
500g Sodium Bicarbonate – comes in 500g (R29.00)
300g Potassium Chloride – comes in 500g (R50.00)
DO NOT BUY SODIUM BICARBONATE FROM A REGULAR GROCERY STORE AS THESE CONTAIN EXTREMELY HARMFUL ALUMINIUM BASED AGENTS. ONLY USE CERTIFIED PURE PRODUCTS FROM A HEALTH SHOP.
Thorughly mix these powders in the proportions given above, ensuring any lumps are completely broken up.
Put 2.5 to 5.5g (half to one level medicine measure) in your 750ml bottle with diluted Liquifruit (if not fat adapted) or just plain bottled/rain water.
This should give you plenty electrolytes for at least 400 water bottles at a total cost of R125.00, compared to R3600.00 for the equivalent in “Rehidrat” which retails at around R9.00 per sachet (all prices at time of writing)!
Of course you may only need to worry about taking in extra electrolytes during sessions that exceed 1.5hrs, however I think it is always good to include these in the recovery drink/meal afterwards.
I also intend buying some empty capsules to fill with this elecrolyte mixture for use on long runs…
One important note is to also supplement magnesium. Our food is today grown in such organically depleted soils, that most of us are severly deficient in it. Recommend you take 400mg of elemental magnesium spread out over the day in a slow release form such as magnesium chelate (best).
Merry Xmas everyone, and a have fun filled, healthy year ahead!
Mike